


Hues and You.

by Anonymous



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: M/M, artist!zhangjing, ceo!yanjun, we wonder what goes on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:28:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26645224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: yanjun, whose life was once the same few things all over again has gone through a lot of change that he himself gets surprised sometimes. for example, doing things he didn’t use to do.
Relationships: Lin Yanjun/You Zhangjing
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11
Collections: Cloud 9 Fic Fest





	Hues and You.

**Author's Note:**

> #299: since zhangjing came to his life, things have been more colourful, more lively and sometimes, he finds himself getting pulled in to become a part of his boyfriend's art projects- from helping him with it to being the canvas.
> 
> or: yanjun becomes zhangjing's kind-of-lab bunny, now he has to go to work with nail art on.

01.

when zhangjing entered yanjun’s life, his world made up of subtle lines and different shades of gray was suddenly splashed with vibrant hues and drawn over with bolder lines. yanjun, whose life was once the same few things all over again has gone through a lot of change that he himself gets surprised sometimes. for example, doing things he didn’t use to do. 

many times, he finds himself doing things he thought he would dislike. from the tiny things like going out on walks in the evening, taking a time off his schedule just he could arrange a surprise and of course, doing anything art related. art is something he’s given up years ago, accepting that he’s just left brained and could do nothing else but appreciate all the art that surrounds him. 

since they started living together, the walls of his apartment have been filled with a lot of new things. walls that were once plain white now have flowers painted over and that empty space right above that now has a corkboard filled with images of them and the things they liked - some were polaroids, others were developed from zhangjing’s camera. 

yanjun can’t help but admire zhangjing’s talent for art - even his undone projects were amazing. sometimes he wonders how zhangjing would think that they weren’t even good when everything zhangjing does is beautiful.

(“you’re just saying that because i’m your boyfriend.” zhangjing says, covering his face due to embarrassment. “i think it’s ugly - look at how i made mistakes here and there!”)

02.

being with zhangjing means adventure. not only due to the fact that he’s outgoing and liked being outdoors when he’s not making artworks but because he always tries to find ways to make new art, leaving the papers and the canvas to play with a new medium. he tried graphic design, sculpting, pottery - even things that yanjun didn’t know could be used to make something new. yanjun wondered how his boyfriend could do all that way too many times already, asking him that question over and over again but all he could conclude is that zhangjing has magic hands. no normal hands would be able to make so many things that pretty aside from zhangjing’s.

lately, he had been watching different videos on youtube, looking at different makeup tutorials as past time until he purchased his first set of makeup. at first, trying it on himself until one day, he just gets dragged along into this.

and adventure could also mean that he is the adventure. and sadly, he is just too in love to say no to zhangjing. a pout is enough to win him over so he doesn’t even try fighting it anymore and just accepts his fate. 

the first time zhangjing made him the canvas lasted only an hour or two, just normal make up and yanjun finds himself wondering if this person on the mirror is really him. pointy eyebrows, rosy cheeks and pink lipgloss. he even has eyeliner on with wings sharp enough that it could probably cut almost everything.

for something that took that long, it looked minimal.

that isn’t so bad though.

of course, that doesn’t last long. zhangjing would often drop his things and tasks to go with his new idea and create something new. after an item arrives, it always ends up with zhangjing experimenting on his face. 

after getting used to doing makeup, zhangjing works on quirkier designs, sometimes complex enough that it takes him more than the usual to work on. even if yanjun isn’t really that into what his boyfriend likes, he always find himself amazed by the end of it. of how zhangjing was able to make it look like he has real flowers growing out of his cheeks to making him look like he just lost his whole face and now it’s been replaced with a whole galaxy. other times, he makes something a little more subtle, drawing waves on his eyelids or just simply doing a new look for practice. 

03.

as always, zhangjing doesn’t stay on one medium. he’d find something else to do after a while. that’s how he got to body painting. after watching a buzzfeed video about it, he couldn’t stop talking about it. yanjun knows that it wouldn’t last a week until zhangjing finally caves in to the idea and eventually orders some body paint and he will have that look on his face- something in between a pout and a smirk that screams evil right when he lands his eyes on yanjun and he will again be zhangjing’s canvas. and of course, he cannot say no to zhangjing. 

the parcel arrives just three days after that, he’s sure that zhangjing squealed right at the delivery man's face in excitement the moment he opened the door and claimed his new set of body paint.

right that afternoon, yanjun’s whole body now has a face on it. it would have been okay if it were a cartoon styled image, but zhangjing really just had to draw a pretty realistic looking linkai on his stomach.

he surely will have nightmares after this.

and a picture of yanjun with linkai’s face drew on him had been sent in their group chat. 

(“i will take my revenge.” yanjun playfully replies to the group chat, and the replies that follow are sadly true.

“you’re whipped, we’re sure you’d let him draw another linkai on your body.”

zhangjing cannot stop laughing about it for the rest of the day.)

04.

makeup, body paint, special effects. those are just a few things zhangjing tried on him. if not for the other things zhangjing did in between, he would probably be majority of the content there is on his boyfriend’s instagram account. his face, his back and an the occasional impromptu shoots he had with him.

soon, zhangjing would have another crazy idea or would want to try something new, something he hadn’t thought of doing before. a week of vacation is a lot of time and zhangjing gets bored very easily.

silence means chaos - or just zhangjing creating things. that’s one of the first few things yanjun learned the moment they started living together. silence means being inspired, his boyfriend would always say.

when zhangjing’s silent, it could also mean that he did or is currently doing something wrong. like that one time he made a mess in the kitchen in an attempt to make pressure cooker ribs.

this time, it goes hand-in-hand. from drawing something weird on yanjun’s face with a marker or making a huge elbow macaroni portrait of himself right in the middle of the living room.

the next thing he knows is that he woke up to his nails being painted.

(“how did you even get these polishes?” yanjun asks, taking a bottle of shiny nail polish from the ones zhangjing put on the table.

“i got it delivered, duh.” was his reply, playfully rolling his eyes at yanjun before opening a bright pink one. “i thought i’d try painting with it. but first, i’d do what’s obvious, paint on your nails.”

before yanjun could ask why his nails, zhangjing already supplies an answer for him. “you have pretty hands, i think they’d look prettier with hot pink polish on your nails.”

“oh, and it’s also because i tried and realized i can’t paint my own nails.”

it only took zhangjing exactly a minute of pouting and asking him if he could before yanjun gives in.)

05.

new year means something new. and so, yanjun faces the new year with, of course, his hot pink nails. even if he could literally just get the bottle of acetone in zhangjing’s tiny nail polish box, he still chooses not to. eventually, he learns to get used to how his nails look like now.

however, going to the office like this? yanjun can’t do that, not when he’s supposed to be handling a meeting right after his vacation.

right now, he doesn’t have the heart to do it, but he will do it before he goes to work next morning - or at least, that is what he thought he’d be doing because the next morning, he was met with a bunch of unfortunate events. 

waking up late is the start of all these unfortunate events. there were a lot of tripping, slipping and maybe he just gained a new bruise on his knee after hitting the table. he couldn’t be late, so he ran even more and found quicker routes.

a boss shouldn’t be late.

all eyes were on him when he got in the building. he had been receiving a lot of weird looks the moment he entered. is there something wrong with him today? he doesn’t look like a mess though, so is there dirt on his face? yanjun doesn’t have the time for that - maybe he’ll check later.

the moment he arrives in the office, he checks his face and the rest of his clothes, but something catches his eyes.

his hands; he didn’t remove the polish off his hands. he came to the office with hot pink nail polish on him. yanjun stares at his hands for the next few minutes in horror.

yanjun could really say goodbye to his serious boss image after this one.

what’s even more unfortunate is that his secretary wasn’t able to find nail polish remover at the nearby drugstore for him. and so, he ends up going on the meeting with hot pink polish right on his fingernails. sometimes, his employees will stop and try their best not to stare at his nails whenever he’s pointing out at something or when he’s taking notes.

today marks the most embarrassing moment for yanjun and he can’t wait to go home and tell zhangjing all about it.

(which is a huge mistake because zhangjing couldn’t stop laughing at his misery. all while saying it doesn’t matter. how could it not when yanjun just had the most embarrassing time of his life? how will his employees take him seriously now that they witnessed him with hot pink polish on his nails? his image is now ruined and though he could easily just say it’s his boyfriend’s fault, he decides to just sulk about it.

“it was embarrassing, okay?” he pouts, “all of my employees must think i’m weird now.”

“it doesn’t matter, your obsession with white shoes and the fact that you get angry easily when a speck of dirt gets on it would always top any other weird thing you’d do.”

yanjun looks at him, confused. “that isn’t weird, though?”

“you talk to your shoes like they’re your babies that just got hurt when it happens.”

okay, maybe zhangjing’s got a point.)

06.

seven days, eight hours, thirty two minutes and fifty nine seconds. it took only that long for zhangjing to get into nail art. yanjun counted the days and it should be accurate enough because he definitely had the exact time written down the second his hot pink polish dried (he didn’t).

it is a lazy saturday morning when zhangjing pulls him over, a bottle of acetone in hand so he could remove the hot pink off yanjun’s fingers. there’s a slight chuckle when he asks yanjun why he kept the polish on when it embarrasses him. truthfully, yanjun told himself he would so many times already, but laziness would always be powerful enough to keep him from doing so.

also, the pink polish isn’t bad at all. everyone in the office is now used to it and the weird looks he’d been getting have lessened after a few days of wearing it.

“what colour are you gonna paint my nails today?” yanjun asks curiously. he feels a little excited about the colour he’d have on his nail next. zhangjing’s nail polish collection had been slowly growing. three polishes becomes six, eight. now zhangjing probably has fifteen and if he keeps this on, his tiny box of polishes would eventually need a bigger place and yanjun doesn’t mind that as long as zhangjing’s happy and it isn’t bothering or hurting anyone.

zhangjing pauses for a moment, contemplating whether to tell yanjun about what he would be having on his nails.

then this evil expression comes up again and yanjun knew he should be ready. it’s either he’s planning something nice or something enough to give him a nightmare. 

“i’ll put on nice colours, i promise.”

like every other artwork, it takes zhangjing a looong long time. he paints and then waits for the polish to dry. 

paint, dry, paint, dry. yanjun falls asleep while zhangjing is painting his nails.

when he wakes up, he’s already placed on the sofa and zhangjing’s already doing something else - cooking dinner, maybe. 

the first thing he does when he wakes up is look at his nails and what he sees are cute bunnies drawn on his nails. some were drawn in pastel blue and pink, others were just plain white with a pastel yellow background.

yanjun likes it.

and it’s a waste that he would need to remove them on monday.

(“you can just keep them on your hands though.” zhangjing says, combing yanjun’s hair with his fingers slowly. the gesture is making him sleepier, but he has to stay up. he needs to finish watching this movie.

“i can't, i am a very serious entrepreneur. no one would think i’m a good employer if i wore-’

“no one told you that, babe. you’re just making excuses.”

yanjun turns to zhangjing, pouting more exaggeratedly. “are you sure i can keep it?”

“yes, you can.”

“and if they call me weird?”

“then you have to call me so i can fight them for you.”)

07.

today is no different from last week. yanjun who told himself he would wake up early and remove the bunny art off his nails unluckily wakes up late again. this time, it doesn’t even matter to him anymore. it seems more of an excuse now - he didn’t want to remove it off his nails anyway.

people would still give him weird stares, but yanjun learned to slowly get used to that. he used to care and whine about it to his boyfriend but now, he laughs at it. zhangjing still teases him about it, though and it’s not! okay! he will get his revenge one of these days, maybe have a poorly drawn flower on his nails and make sure he doesn’t get a hold of acetone or anything to remove the polish off.

okay, that’s a little mean. maybe just a flower. one piece of flower painted on zhangjing’s middle fingernail.

eventually, yanjun stopped caring about the weird stares. what’s important is that zhangjing is able to do what he loves and yanjun is able to keep the cute little drawings on his nails. zhangjing had also been experimenting with things other than normal nail polish. now there are chrome polishes and even magnetic polishes - things that yanjun has never really seen or heard of before. he isn’t a nail kind of person anyway, he’s just happy to stare at them from time to time whenever he feels stressed out and misses his zhangjing.

(“aww, that’s cute.” zhangjing coos, making yanjun’s face burn a brighter shade of red. he just wants to dig a hole and hide right now because tonight’s going to be another round of teasing. yanjun shouldn’t have admitted that because now zhangjing would probably get ideas now.

“next time, i’ll make a self portrait and have it hung in your office. right in front of you so you’d only need to look up and see me staring at you lovingly.”

“i have enough pictures of you in my phone. i think that’s enough, thank you.”

he does really get a portrait of zhangjing sent to his office on valentines day.)

08.

a few months later and his employees have already made bets on what would be on their boss’ nails next. it’s usually done in secret but secrets are meant to be found out anyway. the employees were scared at first, thinking that yanjun could fire them if he did. they didn’t expect yanjun to actually play along with them.

painting his nails had been his and zhangjing’s saturday morning activity since. sometimes, they’d even spend a week wondering what should be put on his nail. other times, zhangjing just draws on a whim. leaves, chocolate bars, some other really complicated patterns and techniques that even he wasn’t so sure how his boyfriend did it.

some people would still treat him weirdly, give him a glare or curse at him because he looks gay like that. (which is true - he is gay) some projects and partnerships that were cancelled because people were too bothered about something that doesn’t exactly affect anything about their work. they say they feel uncomfortable, that it’s unprofessional and that they couldn’t work with someone like that. it had affected yanjun, he’d been sad about it for a while but he has his friends and employees who support him and accept him for who he is. his family doesn’t mind it either. in fact, his nieces would often come to him and take a look at his nails.

but even though he faced rejection just because of one little thing, it doesn’t really stop him from his success. as long as he works hard, it’s alright. 

09.

being with zhangjing is an adventure, but lately, zhangjing is more interested in making yanjun the adventure. he doesn’t do one thing, he wants to know more, wants to do more, wants to make the world more beautiful by trying to make art using different mediums. capturing, creating.

after getting into things like makeup, body painting and nail art, zhangjing wants to try something new.

a day of boredom means zhangjing trying too many different things in a day until something inspires him. now, he has arranged all the books in the bookshelf to make an image of a mountain. he even ordered a few more novels a day ago just to complete his work.

it was then when he got an idea.

he barges into their bedroom, making yanjun stop typing on his laptop to take a look at him.

“i want to learn how to draw tattoos!” he exclaims.

oh boy, yanjun’s in for a ride.

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is my child, i'm glad i'm finally able to birth her.  
> also this fic has scenes i really wanted to write but didn't quite make it? as someone who's deeply in love with art, i wanted to put as much details as i could and have zhangjing try out more new methods. except, things aren't that easy for me because my writing is honestly the shittiest out there. if there's a time, i could make new installments of zhangjing doing other art forms and dragging yanjun into all of this but for now, i think i'm happy with zhangjing painting yanjun's nails.
> 
> also thank you eli for editing this fic uwu


End file.
